DAZ 3D-Gizmoz has released Carrara 8 (http://www.daz3d.com/i/software/carrara8?), an update of the all-in-one 3D solution. The new version provides improved animation tools, enhanced lighting, new vegetation tools and optimized rendering, says DAZ 3D-Gizmoz CEO Dan Farr.

Artists utilizing the Carrara 8 Pro toolset will gain access to 64-bit compatibility for Mac and Windows, as well as the Bullet Physics Library. This open-source, advanced physics toolkit allows artists to use e rigid and soft body dynamics. Combined with the speed improvements achieved from the new support for multi-threading and 64-bit hardware, Carrara 8 Pro drastically improves productivity, says Farr.


Additionally, updated export capabilities allow game developers to transfer custom figures, environments and/or animations directly into the Unity game engine via the FBX file format. 
In addition to the above improvements, Farr says Carrara 8 artists will experience: improved plants and vegetation, editing of posed meshes, beefed-up lighting tools and improved animation tools.

DAZ Studio's Puppeteer has been added to the Carrara 8 toolset, enhancing animators' ability to create realistic animated figures that may be recorded and used as animation clips. This process has now been simplified by blending between saved poses, shapes and expressions. 
Also in Carrara 8, users have morecontrol over their render farm as they add and remove nodes via their master machine, render frames or buckets as desired for greater safeguarding against lost render data.

The full version of Carrara 8 Pro is available in both Mac OS X and Windows formats via the DAZ 3D-Gizmoz web site, and is regularly priced at US$549. Licenses for the standard version Carrara 8 are available for $249.95. Special discount pricing is available for a limited time in the http://www.DAZ3D.com online store.